On yer bike

It’s so obvious really. Christchurch is flat, it’s a chance for me to get some exercise in, and I think it is crazy for someone who has any level of fitness to be driving a car to work. And environmentally I think it is absolutely the right thing to do.

And it’s a great transition. When I get home, I’m actually home, I’m not in a suit. I can start climbing a tree, jumping on the trampoline or wrestling any one of my three boys.

Are you a recreational cyclist as well?
I am. I own four bikes — well, call it three, because one’s out at the beach house — a road bike, a mountain bike and my commuting bike.

Do you pack ride at the weekend?
No. I go out with a couple of mates, but I think bike racing can be pretty dangerous: a bunch of 30-year-olds, wearing lots of lycra, full of testosterone.

Do you ever take the car to work?
Occasionally. I don’t ride in heavy frosts or in snow.

What’s your strategy for traffic management?
I take the long way to work. It takes 20 minutes, but I don’t take the most direct route. I take a route where I avoid main roads, and I avoid intersections where I know cars are not going to respect me. It’s much safer and it’s much more pleasurable. And I think take a regular route, because you get to learn where cars do dumb things. You learn the trouble spots and you learn to ride much more defensively.

How do you carry your papers?
I wear a shoulder bag, a bit like a cycle courier’s shoulder bag.

What are your essential tips for the clothing transition?
I keep a suit at the airport, so I can bike to the airport. A key thing to keep at work always: a dry set of undies. If you get caught in a rain shower, you might have a suit and shirt, but if you haven’t got dry undies, it’s not going to be a very comfortable day.

What’s your favourite biking story?
I was once biking home and I had an altercation with a woman. She pulled out in front of me and I banged on the bonnet and I gave her an unfriendly gesture. She made a thing of pulling out beside me a couple of sets of lights down the road, and she said, ‘Why don’t you get yourself a proper job, mate, and then you can buy yourself a car’. You know, I quite like the fact I’m in disguise.

People talk about ‘bike to work weeks’; I like the idea of ‘take the car to work days’, when people who normally bike or take the bus drive, then everybody who drives gets to appreciate how less empty the road is. Because that’s really one of the key benefits.

THE KIT:

JACKET: My favourite bit of kit is my Ground Effect jacket, which is actually a 10-year-old jacket now. It’s probably time to get a new one. But it’s good quality gear that lasts; it’s really well designed.
It was $200, 10 years ago, and I think it’s still pretty much $200, 10 years later. It’s an online brand made by a bunch of enthusiastic Christchurch cyclists. I know them slightly and they buy your magazine.

HELMET: I have a little mirror melted on my helmet — you can just buy them from places like Cycle Trading. That way you can keep an eye on 12-year-old boys on their BMX bikes and that sort of stuff, because if you overtake a 12-year-old boy on his BMX and he overtakes you again, he’s won the race.

LIGHTS: I don’t aspire to any bit of kit, but I’m always trying to update my lights and make sure I’ve got the best.

COMMUTING BIKE: Bought in 1991 from Cycle Trading, like all my bikes, from this old bike shop in Christchurch. Just about everything on it has been replaced, but being an old bike means you can park it outside the supermarket and go buy some milk or, in the past, nappies, and you don’t really worry anyone is going to pinch it.

SHOES: I wear mountain biking shoes that clip in; toe clips, I find, tend to wear out.

TYRES: Good quality tyres make a big difference.